Israel Rejects Cease-fire Proposal

Troops Shoot, Kill Local Leader Of Islamic Jihad

September 17, 2003|By Greg Myre The New York Times

JERUSALEM — Yasser Arafat's security adviser on Tuesday called for a Mideast cease-fire, but Israel immediately dismissed the plan as inadequate without Palestinian action to break up violent factions.

Arafat, the Palestinian leader, appeared to refer to the proposal when speaking to supporters gathered at his compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

"We say to the peace supporters in Israel that we extend our hand to you to revive peace," Arafat told the crowd, which has formed each day since Israel announced on Thursday it had decided in principle to oust him.

Despite the peace offer, the day was marked by renewed violence. Israeli tanks and jeeps surrounded a house in the West Bank village of Dura, near Hebron, and killed Majid Abu Dosh, a local leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, as he attempted to flee with an automatic rifle, the army said.

After the troops killed Dosh, a bulldozer flattened the family home, a practice that Israel defends as a deterrent to terrorism. Palestinian Islamic Jihad is responsible for many of the suicide bombings against Israel, and the military said Dosh was linked to attacks that killed 16 Israelis.

The prevailing Middle East peace plan, known as the road map, has stalled amid the recent violence, and there is no clear direction forward at present.

Israel broke off contacts with the Palestinians following suicide bombings last month, while the Palestinians are in political limbo as they attempt to form a new Cabinet.

Against this backdrop, Arafat's security adviser, Jibril Rajoub, urged a "general cease-fire" to reduce the tensions and move the parties back toward the peace plan. "I am talking about a mutual cease-fire to stop all the attacks from both sides," Rajoub said on Israel radio. "Let's return to the negotiating table. We don't have to wait for someone to come from Washington or London or Paris to do our work."

Rajoub said the Palestinians would present the proposal to Israel when a new Palestinian government is installed. The nominee for prime minister, Ahmed Qureia, is still attempting to form a Cabinet following the resignation of his predecessor, Mahmoud Abbas this month. But the process is moving slowly and the Cabinet is not expected to be ready before this weekend at the earliest.

Israel was quick to reject the Palestinian cease-fire plan. "Israel will pay careful attention to whether any Palestinian leadership is willing to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism," as called for in the road map, said Dore Gold, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. "Israel will not experiment will all kinds of variants that don't meet that standard."

Rajoub did not say what action, if any, the Palestinian security forces would take against factions that have carried out attacks, such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas. Those two groups were among several Palestinian factions that declared a unilateral truce at the end of June and a brief period of reduced violence followed.